6.0-Magnitude Earthquake Recorded Off the Coast of Barbuda

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake was recorded near the island of Barbuda in the Eastern Caribbean Sea early Saturday morning. The strong quake was centered about 76 miles northeast of Codrington, Barbuda, the island’s most populous city, around 7:30 a.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“You may not associate earthquakes with the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands, but just to their northeast is the boundary between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates,” said weather.com senior meteorologist Jon Erdman. Of the cities exposed, the largest populations in the affected area were that of Saint John’s and Basseterre, the capital of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies. READ MORE